Crescent Times

Have you ever wondered about the significance of the col-umns at the far end of the formal garden? They are an

important link in Crescent’s history and also mark the location of the new Centennial Garden, which will be formally opened on Wednesday, Nov. 7.

The columns originally formed the grand entrance of the main house at Dentonia Park, which was the home of Cres-cent School from 1933 – 1970. Dentonia Park was donated to Crescent School by Susan Massey, the widow of Walter Ed-ward Hart Massey who assumed the presidency of the Massey-Harris Co. following the death of his father. Mrs. Massey was closely associated with the School through her six grandsons, who were all students.

Dentonia Park was the 240 acre, rural retreat of Walter and Su-san Massey, located north and east of the city. Walter’s nephew, actor Raymond Massey, described it in his memoir as “more than 70 acres of rolling, arable fields. It had the same amount of ravines and hills for pasturage; the remainders were small lakes and woods. It was the most beautiful farm I have ever seen.”

It was a working farm, that sold fresh eggs, poultry and trout. The City Dairy Company was founded at Dentonia, and produced the first pasteurized milk in Canada. In 1913 Mrs. Massey (widowed in 1901), decided to move from the city and make Dentonia Park her permanent home. In preparation, she planned to demolish the existing farmhouse and erect a new mansion that would serve both as a home, and as a Massey legacy. When the house was completed in 1918, it was large and impressive, although there is some discrepancy about the number of rooms—one account reported 52, another 100.

Records in the archives show that the Massey connection with Crescent began with Mrs. Massey’s eldest daughter, Ruth, who married Dr. Harold Tovell in 1910. Dr. Tovell knew and admired Crescent’s headmaster, Jimmy James; a former mas-ter of Tovell’s at SAC. When Dr. Tovell’s four sons (Walter ’29, Freeman ’31, Harold ’34 and Vincent ’35) were of school age, he decided to enroll them at Crescent on Collier St. Their cousins, Walter Massey ’39 and James Knox ’35, followed.

Through her grandsons, Mrs. Massey became an enduring supporter of the School. She donated awards and trophies, at-tended Prize Day, and other ceremonial occasions, and invited students to Dentonia Park for cricket matches and tea parties.

By the early 1930s, maintaining the buildings and grounds of Dentonia Park was becoming too onerous for Mrs. Massey. In April 1933 she generously donated the house and the sur-rounding 40 acres to Crescent. This new home provided many exciting opportunities: the School population increased sig-nificantly, bird watching and leaf collecting competitions were initiated, the sports progam was expanded, and a small zoo was established in the basement.

Dentonia became the home of over 100 Crescent students and is fondly remembered by alumni today. Each year a luncheon is held for Dentonia campus alumni, and many stories are regaled about the wonderful times experienced both in the classroom, and in the wooded areas and fields surrounding the house.

By the 1960s, the School was facing crippling costs associ-ated with the deteriorating buildings of Dentonia and student transportation costs. It was decided that Crescent needed a new home. In 1970 when the Dentonia Park estate was sold to developers and the house was being demolished, the columns were saved and moved to their present site in the Formal Gar-den. It was only due to the successful sale of Dentonia Park that the School was able to purchase the prime location on Bayview that is our Crescent home today.

In celebration of our centennial year, the area around the Den-tonia columns has been landscaped and refurbished and will be formally opened as the Centennial Garden on Wednesday, Nov. 7, following the Remembrance Day Assembly.

All are welcome. Please join us and members of the Massey family and Dentonia alumni for this centennial celebration.

—Jane Freund, Centennial Celebration Co-Chair

Volume 16 Issue 3October 26, 2012

CresCent times

CENTENNIAL GARDEN TO FORMALLY OPEN

2 Men of Character from Boys of Promise

CPA NEWS

UPCOMING EVENTS HOLIDAY SALE COCKTAIL PARTYNovember 21 from 6:30 – 9:30 p.m.

HOLIDAY SALENovember 22 from 8:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.

Once again, we are excited to announce the annual Cres-cent Holiday Sale! Festivities begin with an elegant, CPA

funded evening cocktail party in the CCL on November 21.

The sale continues the next day from 8:30 to 4:30. We have an exciting new addition to our gift market this year—original art! Over 20 artists will be exhibiting their works, including photography, oils and encaustic. All pieces are priced under $1,000. Of course, we will have many familiar vendors, raffle prizes and some great new additions. Please join us—one stop for all of your holiday giving!

COAT AND BOOT DRIVENovember 5 – 16

As the temperature continues to drop, it is time to go through our cold weather clothing. Any items that family

members have outgrown or no longer need will be gratefully accepted by the Willow Park and Firgrove school community. “Parents were on the verge of tears last year because they were so humbled by the donations,” said Diana Keep teacher at Willow Park Jr. Public School. Most of the families supported by our drive have just immigrated to Canada from warmer climates. Our donations allow them to prepare for their first winter here in Canada. The need is great. Clothing can be dropped off just inside the Manor door starting November 5.

3Men of Character from Boys of Promise

Much goes into a great school year for a Crescent student including

his teachers, co-curricular teams, Out-reach, Bear Week, and the lunch menu too. As a coordinator for this year’s Grade Parent Programme, I have the opportunity to write about 27 Crescent Grade Parents and four School Grade Parent Liaisons who also contribute to making a successful year at Crescent School.

The CPA organizes Grade Parents for Lower School, Middle School and Upper School. These volunteers help facilitate community building within their grade and support communication between the School and parents. Though their activities differ from school-to-school, one thing they share is an enthusiasm to connect to Crescent and other parents.

This year’s Grade Parents and Liaisons met in early September to kickoff plan-ning for the year. Since then, they have connected with each new family in their grade, offering their experience and sup-port if needed. Many have organized parent coffee gatherings, and evening parent socials. Grade 3 parents had the opportunity to meet each other for the first time at their parent social and for grade 12, the night was a strong gather-ing of families who are celebrating a final

year at Crescent School.

Many activities will keep Grade Parents active with the School and parent com-munity this year. Susan Silma (Daniel) is a Middle School Grade Parent and also a previous Grade Parent in the Lower School. What brought her back to vol-unteer this year was working with the Lower School faculty and the parents on the Heart-to-Hand Outreach Program.

As a Grade Parent she worked with the boys and their parents to gather house-hold items, toys and clothing for a single mother with six children. When the class discovered that the family did not have enough beds for each child, a group of parents, and their boys, organized the purchase of bunk beds and mattresses. Susan says her involvement “was a truly rewarding experience; not only because we helped a family, but we also strength-ened the Crescent community.”

For others, becoming a Grade Parent helped to connect them more closely to other parents. Julie Regan (Jackson and Wyatt) has been a Grade Parent for both her boys. Her family relocated cities and schools many times for work, and when they finally settled in Toronto she did not have a social network on which to rely within the school system or neighborhood. “Being a Grade Parent

gave me an instant social platform to access other parents, teachers and school community,” says Julie.

For Karin Kolb (Taylor) she reflects on being one of last year’s grade 6 Grade Parents. “It gave me the opportunity to work closely with other fabulous grade 6 Grade Parents in a special year.” Matilda Mavroudis (Andy) joined Karin last year and recalls creating a slide show with her fellow Grade Parents for the graduation breakfast. “The most gratifying experi-ence as a Grade Parent was putting to-gether the slide show. We gathered pho-tos of each boy from Crescent’s archives dating back to grade 3. We worked for hours, well into the night, to create a lovely memory.”

Grade Parents play an important role in the classroom and within the Cres-cent community. They also enjoy some wonderful moments themselves along the way. If you haven’t had a chance to meet your Grade Parent, they do look forward to getting to know you. Contact them with any questions, or please join them at the next parent coffee morning or social.

—Tara Borg, Chair, Grade Parent Programme

LOWER SCHOOL LIAISON Sheila Centner

GRADE PARENTS Grade 3 Fiona George & Clare Davenport Grade 4 Loise Woollcombe & Carol Port Grade 5 Tina Carl & Sue Sundaram Grade 6 Cee Cee Robertson, Shannon Schneider, Nita Hunter, Joelle Corona, Nicole Swales

MIDDLE SCHOOL LIAISON Lori Fisher

GRADE PARENTSGrade 7 Helen Lerberg & Anita Mason & Karen Hannaford & Susan Silma Grade 8 Michelle DeBresser & Helen Klassen & Fran Brown & Jennifer Roberts-Logan

UPPER SCHOOL LIAISONS Debbie Bell & Natalie Williams

GRADE PARENTSGrade 9 Sherrie Berdusco & Vivian Greenberg Grade 10 Ritu Gupta & Nicole Swadron Grade 11 Valerie Salvati & Kathy Besse Grade 12 Anne Marie Tompkins & Carolyn Christodoulou

INTRODUCING THIS YEAR’S GRADE PARENTS & LIAISONS

GRADE PARENTS ARE MAKING THE GRADE


SCHOOL MESSAGES

From the Lower School

I would like to take this opportunity to highlight the success stories of two of our wonderful Lower School educators, that

occurred last month, only one day apart.

On September 28, in Ottawa, one of our French teachers, Sylvia Duckworth was awarded the 2012 H. H. Stern Award for Innovation in Second Language Teaching. This prestigious award is given by the Canadian Association of Second Lan-guage Teachers (CASLT) once a year to a Canadian educator who has demonstrated innovative classroom practices in sec-ond language learning. The award was established to encourage school-based educators to focus on innovations in the class-room, the school and the community. The award is named in memory of Dr. H. H. Stern who was a highly respected educa-tor and visionary in second language theory and acquisition.

The CASLT wrote: Your initiative to create opportunities for authentic language use through the use of modern technol-ogy promotes innovative and strong second language teaching strategies that benefit students in your school and in turn, will encourage your colleagues across the country to further ex-plore these ideas and practices.

I know that Madame Duckworth credits Crescent School for providing an environment in which teachers can be creative and thrive. Félicitations, Madame!

Then, on September 29 at 10 a.m. Crescent School joined together in an inspirational act of solidarity to help fight the war against cancer. Led by the Lower School coordinator, Ni-cole Whale, students, families, friends, and even some overly excited pets, laced up their running shoes and participated in our annual Terry Fox Run. It was heartwarming to see Lower School, Middle School and Upper School boys running side by side. However, Crescent School’s fight against cancer did not begin or end with the run.

Being our centennial year, we joined forces with the Terry Fox Foundation to create a one-of-a-kind 100th Year Terry Fox Run T-shirt. The T-shirts were sold to students and their families to raise funds for cancer research. In the weeks prior to the run, T-shirt sales raised over $6,645 for the Terry Fox Founda-tion. This was an incredible feat of fundraising and participants looked mighty stylish sporting their commemorative T-shirts on the day of the run.

In addition to T-shirt sales, fundraising efforts rang through the School. The Lower School hosted a Candy Sale and a fundrais-

ing competition between the form classes with a pizza lunch incentive.

Although some forms were only mere dollars apart, 5B, Mr. Barton’s class, took the lead in the competition and raised over $3,000 for The Terry Fox Foundation; however, as true men of character, 5B decided to forgo their pizza lunch prize and do-nated the monies back into the Terry Fox pot. Congratulations to all of the Lower School boys for their fundraising efforts. Collectively, the Lower School was responsible for donating over $12,000 to this great cause.

A sincere and heartfelt thank you to all of those that partici-pated and donated, and thank you to all of the Lower School teachers who inspired their classes to participate. In total, we are very proud to report that Crescent School raised approxi-mately $18,000 for The Terry Fox Foundation and for cancer research. Terry Fox’s dream and inspirational message of never giving up is still alive and thriving at Crescent School.

Thank you ladies, for being such positive role models to our boys and to our community.

—Dr. Boyes, Head of Lower School


From the Middle School

When it comes to moments of genius some people will recount the first walk on the moon, some may say E

equaling M something or other, some may get themselves all excited about Bill Gates and his wee Internetty thing. For me though, it’s never been in doubt. The very definition of genius in my opinion originated in Slough, England (home of The Of-fice as well) in 1932 when that eighth wonder of the world was invented—the Mars bar.

You know it’s true… the masterstroke of layering caramel and nougat together and the absolute audacity to then cover it with milk chocolate. And the ultimate inspiration to know that no more is needed. Pure, unadulterated genius.

My love affair with the Mars bar started as a young boy. I grew up in Bangladesh in the 1970s and the chocolate op-tions available were, well… limited. Once a month, my Granny would send us a care package. The old-fashioned brown pa-per wrapped parcel was opened gingerly on our kitchen table. Breaths were held as my mother unpacked the various items. Old newspapers from back home, a few kitchen ingredients for my mum and then there it was, a lone Mars bar.

This tiny nugget of treasure was placed with great reverence into our fridge to be removed after our dinner was finished. The honour was my Dad’s to slice each of us a sliver of Mars bar, which we ate in silence as the rest of the bar was put back in the fridge. The intoxicating bliss of that caramel, chocolate mix, melting and swirling around my mouth and the sugar rush that followed was absolute heaven. It was brief, a promise al-most, and I was left wanting more.

I can still remember the joyous disbelief I felt when I ate my first full Mars bar as a 10-year-old. Of course I have been intro-duced to many, many lovely candy bars over the years. But it’s too late—Mars bars will forever be the example of complete genius for me.

I wanted to build on Mr. Dion’s great article in which he dem-onstrated a compelling rationale as to why focusing on learning skills is an essential focus in the Middle School. The end prod-uct of the learning skills Mr. Dion talked about, is a healthy relationship with success and what that should look like to en-sure that the pursuit of success is motivational and fuelled by passion.

There is increasing evidence that our boys are part of a gen-eration for whom success has been given rather than earned. Theirs has become a demotivating relationship with success, one that is impossible to translate into the real world. It is also

one that does not allow the growth of pas-sion towards something.

The focus on learning skills in the Middle School draws at-tention to effort, and the experience. It can, at its best, allow for moments of hard-earned slivers of success. It can provide those fleeting moments of success that taste so good and leave the boys wanting more. When a boy’s own efforts have deliv-ered success he can experience that intoxicating sensation that can ignite a passion.

Within the safe “care package” environment of the Middle School we can support our boys to see success as something you strive towards. It should be something that you attain a little at a time, and not always. The pursuit of it should be mo-tivating and driven by passion.

So that when the day comes when they finally get a “whole Mars bar,” they are hooked, and a passion that lasts a lifetime is born—all based on a healthy, progressive experience of suc-cess.

I’m sure I could extend the metaphor for an unhealthy rela-tionship with success, but that would require me talking about Mars bars of the deep fried variety, and you’ll understand if, as a Scot, I leave the metaphor here.

—Mr. Young, Head of Middle School


From the Upper School

We are excited to announce a new research partnership between the Center for the Study of Boys’ and Girls’

Lives (CSBGL) and Crescent School.

Last year, students and faculty learned about the size and scope of bullying at Crescent. We gathered at Assembly, in Mentor Group, and around the School at-large to openly consider, “Does bullying exist at Crescent?”

Together we thought more deeply about what bullying looks like and the frequency of which it occurs. We now know that bullying exists—boys chirp, put down, and insult others. For-tunately, it is low-level behaviour; sadly, it is high-level frequen-cy among those who report bullying or having been bullied by others. Yet, it is clear a gap remains between teachers and students as to why bullying exists at all among Crescent boys.

One of the cornerstones of Crescent School is the degree to which students are empowered to lead and care for their own school culture. One way to continue to privilege student voice is to engage students in a traditionally held and adult-driven school practice—research. Fortunately for us, a model already exists for such work, sponsored through the University of Pennsylvania and involving a number of independent schools from across the United States.

CSBGL exists to promote the widest sense of possibility and

integrity in the producing of knowledge that influences decisions and practices in schools. It embraces a model of inquiry known as Youth Partici-patory Action Research (YPAR), in which students are directly involved in a systematic approach for improving their school environment through collaborative inquiry. Projects are rigor-ously empirical, reflective, and interpretive; topics are chosen by students in response to needs identified by the school. As a research method, YPAR motivates schools in making program-matic decisions based on the “lived experience” of its students.

Recently, project coordinators, Dr. Leatch and I, visited two grade 11 Introduction to Anthropology, Psychology, and Soci-ology (IAPS) courses to discuss the appetite for such a pursuit. After an overwhelming response and application process, six students were selected to join the research team, which will now embark on identifying a research topic pertaining to stu-dent experiences of social friction and bullying behaviours in the School.

Our hope is that by having a deeper look at student relation-ships, we can help make Crescent a more respectful and com-passionate school community. Stay tuned for more informa-tion.

—Mr. Fellin, Assistant Head of Upper School

Many of you will remember that we undertook a survey last year to assess the degree of social cruelty and bul-

lying at Crescent as part of our ongoing check and support of our student culture. We engaged one of Canada’s leading or-ganizations, PREVNet, to do the third-party assessment, and while they were very impressed with Crescent’s supportive en-vironment, they made some significant recommendations that we have reviewed and plan to implement.

One of the key recommendations from the PREVNet re-searchers deals with the importance of providing support for Upper School boys who may be dealing with issues of sexual identity.

They pointed out that, while the culture of our School is warm and supportive, much of the “chirping” or verbal bullying that does go on involves homophobic slurs and that this could cre-ate a very negative environment for boys trying to deal with such deeply personal concerns, and that these are the adoles-cents who, statistically, are most at risk for self-harm.

In our deliberations about how to implement the PREVNet recommendations, we have relied on our counselor, Andrea Kaye’s expertise. We have sought to understand how other schools have responded, looked at best practices, and paid at-tention to recent amendments to the Education Act meant to address bullying.

As a result, we will form a Crescent School GSA (Gay-Straight Alliance) in the Upper School, which will be closely affiliated with the Inter-School Alliance that Ms. Kaye has successfully facilitated for several years with several of our brother and sis-ter schools.

We believe that in this way we can appropriately and sensitive-ly respond to the needs of all of our boys, particularly in pro-viding a safe and welcoming place for them to grow and learn.

Should you have any questions, please feel free to speak to me or to Ms. Kaye.

—Mr. Lowndes, Head of Upper School

Implementing a PREVNet Recommendation


Where were you before Crescent?I was at the Jackman Institute of Child Study doing a master of art in Child Study and Education.

What do you teach?Grade 5 and 6 French.

How many languages do you speak?Two: French and English.

How are you liking it at Crescent?I am having a wonderful time!

What’s your favorite thing about Crescent?How welcoming and kind everyone is. From the faculty to the boys to the parents; everyone goes out of their way to be friendly and helpful.

What do you do in your class that is specific to boys’ learning?I aim to use group and collaborative work whenever possible.

If you changed professions, what would you do?I would become a chef because I love to cook.

Big fish in a small pond or small fish in a big pond?Both have their pros and cons; but if I had to pick probably big fish in a small pond.

What are you afraid of?I am afraid of running out of good books to read; fortunately we have an amazing library staff who are full of great recommendations.

What is your greatest joy?Seeing the look in a boy’s eyes when he gets a particularly difficult concept. Also, a really good meal with my favourite people.

Favourite movie or book? My favourite movie of all time is To Catch a Thief. I cannot possibly pick a favourite book, but I do love food biographies.

If you were a professional athlete who would you be?Christine Sinclair

What changes have you seen during your career? Or do you expect to see?I absolutely love teaching French in grade 5 and 6 so it’s hard to imagine being anywhere else!

If you could change one thing about Crescent, what would it be?I would move the awesome new water fountain in the Lower School hallway closer to my classroom! Although, then I wouldn’t get to run into all the boys as I walk down the hallway, so I would miss that.

Describe the perfect day here.While we have had some amazing events at Crescent so far this year (skydivers, House Day, camp), I absolutely love a regular day at Crescent. It would have to be a Wednesday since my favourite food is pasta. I would teach grade 5 in the morning and grade 6 in the afternoon. After school, I would magically be able to attend all the co-curricular activities that the students in my classes are involved in. It’s so much fun to see the students and teachers outside the classroom.

FACULTY PROFILEIsabelle Moore

WHAT IS THE PEP? The Parent Education Partnership is a program for parents that parallels the commitments of the School with individual responsibility, healthy relationships and resiliency, to foster character development during and beyond Crescent.

WHAT'S COMING UP? PEP is offering workshops for parents of grade 10 boys to help support and parallel the University Counselling workshops being done in class. Past Parent, and Life & Leadership Coach Anne Murray will conduct these workshops.

November 13 or 22 from 7-8:30 p.m. in the Lau Family Wing. See you there!

CHARACTER CORNER

Last week the world came together in vigil to signify the tragic death of Amanda Todd. Earlier this week Anthony

Volk wrote in The Globe and Mail Why Bullies Bully. Both of these events underscore the importance of the Grads’ initia-tive to eliminate verbal slurs from the student culture.

At Crescent, we acknowledge that at a boys’ school (with a mission like ours), it is imperative that we educate the boys on issues related to concepts of masculinity. We are intention-al about creating a culture, tone, and program that helps to frame, model, and dialogue what real manhood is; what a man of character is.

Much of the work that we do is counter cultural. We are often re-educating what the boys are inundated with on TV, on the Internet, and on billboards across the city. My son is eight, and loves to watch sports. At this time of year, he loves to watch football, and as a father I love to watch it with him.

What he doesn’t love, is that we won’t let him watch TV dur-ing the week. On the weekends, he is only allowed to watch for a short period of time. This has introduced us to the world of PVR. My son knows how to use the PVR better than my wife and me. The ancillary benefit to having him watch most of the games on PVR is that he skips the commercials. I never really thought about what he was missing until I looked at it through the lens of an 8-year-old. There were very few com-mercials that we actually would have wanted him to see. Most of the commercials are selling beer, trucks, deodorant, and all of them use women in suggestive ways to do it.

Part of teaching about masculinity has to deal with the objec-

tification of women. That is our responsibility as adults. The boys wouldn’t raise this concern because, most teenage boys want to see these images; or at least they have been condi-tioned to believe that they should. But Crescent School, with its mission to develop Men of Character, calls forth in us, as we should in each other, our very best; both collectively and individually.

Recently the girls from BSS created a video to promote their Halloween movie night. The video fed right into the stereo-type of women as objects. A lot of the faculty in the Upper School used this as a discussion item in Mentor Group. Often, we see the issue as a male issue, but this video highlighted that it is an issue for men and women, as women can often play into these stereotypes. In my Mentor Group, some boys asked, “If girls make these videos, pictures, commercials, doesn’t that make it OK?”

This is a difficult concept for a teenage boy’s brain to con-ceive. However, as an adult with two daughters, the lens through which I perceive the world has changed. Our partner girls’ schools all promote girl-centric messages. It is just as im-portant for them to teach about masculinity.

Last week, the Middle School boys went to their first COS-SOT dance. Tonight, the grade 11 and 12 boys will have their semi-formal. I hope as parents, teachers, and mentors, we are all taking the time to dialogue with our sons about relation-ships, gender relations, and how to be a man.

—Mr. Dubrick, Director of Character & Leadership

Crescent School | 2365 Bayview Ave. Toronto, ON M2L 1A2 | 416.449.2556 | www.crescentschool.org

great photo!courtesy of grade 11 student Tom Cartotto

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